Now in 3D
by Mechabite
Summary: Henry counted it as no coincidence that the same day the ink machine was switched on for the first time was the same day that Joey Drew began to go mad.
1. For Your Entertainment

Henry counted it as no coincidence that the same day the ink machine was switched on for the first time was the same day that Joey Drew began to go mad.

A great, intimidating thing it was, hidden in a room buried deep in the twisting halls of the animation studio. It literally _made_ ink. 'For the ease of the animators', Joey said. It spat and sputtered, gears turning and smoke pouring from the top. Tubes connected it to the rest of the building, with ink occasionally spewing from cracked pipes. Constantly it broke down; and Henry was the only one Joey trusted to clean it at the end of every day.

Joey was not just a cartoonist, but an inventor as well. A creator. A thin, weasely man with dark smooth hair and a sparse mustache clinging to his upper lip, he dressed smart and held an air of authority despite his size. He had made the ink machine in less than five years, whereas it had taken six for him to get his animation studio up and running. The man was madly talented, and inspiring as all get out.

It was a shame he was completely nuts.

Henry, in contrast, was a mild mannered, heavy set man who had never done anything in his four decades of life besides become Head Editor for the studio. It suited him just fine. He was one to stay contented in even the smallest areas of life.

The studio itself, Sillyvision, had started in the early 1920's by the ambitious Joey Drew, and was blown away with its own success. Akin to the ever popular Disney cartoon characters, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the shorts were black and white and comedy based. Unlike Disney, though, Sillyvision's characters and comedy were a bit more for adults. A tad more crude, with jokes that easily flew over children's heads. Just a bit. Whatever the case, they were still one of the first two dimensional cartoon studios to open their doors, and sometimes they made the competition make a run for their money.

Henry himself was responsible for the finished design of the main characters, Bendy the Devil and Boris the Wolf. Real crowd pleasers there. Of course, Joey had had the ideas for all the characters first, but Henry was partially responsible for refining them and making sure they stayed on-model during production. They were partners.

But that machine...there was just something so _wrong_ with it. It was like a living thing. It _lurked._

Henry gave it a stern look from across the room, as if warning it away. He was busy going through some key action shots for the next episode 'The Wolf Who Cried'. It was going to be a hit, for sure, but sometimes he wondered what morbid trail Joey's mind went down when he came up with the ideas for these cartoons.

He'd also noticed the subtle changes in the ink machine, being that he spent more time around it than most. The added size, compartments, the wires sticking out the cracks. It had started to make newer, louder sounds. The smoke billowing from the top was getting blacker. Joey was definitely modifying it; but for what he wasn't sure.

He coughed huskily, the tone edging on annoyance. He was sick of breathing in these fumes. And the creaky floorboards, and his favorite shirts getting black stains on them, ect. The list could go on.

"Hello." Joey suddenly walked pass him from the hallway, holding a thick bundle of punched animation paper.

"Mmm...hi." Henry frowned, looking up briefly. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't surprised to see him here; In the middle of the day no less. Joey usually cooped himself up in his office and only graced his co-workers with his presence when it was madatory.

Henry turned slightly to watch what Joey was up to. While casually correcting poses and off-model mishaps, his boss came in and out with five more armloads of paper and proceeded to stack them on a crooked table beside the ink machine. Curious, but not totally abnormal.

What was abnormal, however, was when the man began to stick stacks of the paper into a slot on the side of the machine; the slot usually used to test the ink's quality. He was essentially sticking loads of paper into a vat of ink...what the heck.

Joey was finishing the third stack when Henry suddenly realized the value of said paper. It got to him so suddenly that he found himself shouting.

"Hey, HEYHEY!" He trotted over in bewilderment beside Joey, who paid him no heed and continued, "What the _hell_ are you doing, Joey?!"

"What?" It was less of a question, and more of a warning. The man eyed him out of the corner of his eyes, almost like a cornered animal.

Henry watched the insanity before him, pulling a couple papers back his way,"Joey, these are the original animation cels for the last episode...you know that, right?" He rubbed a hand through his thin, greying black hair, completely confused. This was hundreds of hours of work going down the metaphorical drain.

"Yes. I know that." Joey curled his lip towards Henry, but otherwise continued,"I'm the boss; I decide what to do with these. We're done with them, anyways."

"Well, yeah, but...they could be worth something some day." And the work lovingly put into each one. Each frame. Each character. Sentiments aside, most people with common sense would treasure each frame for a good portion of their lives.

Joey snorted in almost a bemused fashion,"Well, this is what they're worth to me." He paused,"What do you know anyways? I'm doing important work here."

Completely bonkers, this guy.

But could he stand to just stay here and watch this happen? Sadly, yes. No matter how well they knew each other, Joey was still his boss and all his decisions...no matter how ludicrous...were to be respected. For the most part.

He spied a particular drawing, #678, that was one of his favorite scenes. Bendy had a tutu on and was looking murderously on to the audience with a pout, as if it were their fault he was in this predicament.

"At least let me keep thi-." Henry was in the middle of sliding the paper out of the pile, when Joey's hand slammed down on the other side of it with tremendous force. His face had a wild, wide eyed look, daring the other man to continue.

A short staring contest went on before Henry relented, releasing the paper with a huff and marching back across to his table heavily. He gritted his teeth, snatched up his coffee mug, and headed out of the room. The work day was more than over, he'd say. Time to go home and just not think about his deteriorating friend.

 ** _Weeks passed._**

He didn't know how or why or what kind of horrible magic was involved, but that _thing_ was alive.

 _That thing_ being the real in the flesh...or in the ink...Bendy the Devil.

It was insane such a thing could occur. It disgusted and horrified Henry to no end. How was it even possible?! He didn't even want to look at it; it unnerved him terribly even if he'd only seen it a handful of times. It was a three dimential look alike of the character made in the show. Same black rounded head with pointed horns, white grinning face with great rounded eyes, bouncy bowtie, shining black boots, typical white gloves used on most cartoons in this era, and a long pointed tail that was easily the length of its body. It was about three feet tall, if that.

The big goofy smile stuck to its face made him shiver. All he wanted to do was his job; he didnt want this. What was the point of it, anyways? If anyone important figured out that Joey could essentially create life out of ink, things could become dangerous. Which was probably why he kept the thing in the back rooms. Unfortunately, Henry did most of his work back there. Fortunately, he had not run into the little devil for almost a week.

Almost being the key word.

Work was still progressing on 'The Wolf Who Cried' as usual. It was going well, the only problem was the dwindling staff. Here Henry sat in the back room, working overtime in the humid enviroment, just because people kept spontaneously quitting. He loosened his striped tie a bit, sighing. He was working on a pose of Boris jumping over a fence. It was just coming out...wrong. His mind was kind of out of it right now. He needed a break, pronto.

Wiping his face with a stylish white handkerchief, he regarded his work for a moment. Then he reached for his water bottle and took a few relieving gulps.

"Whatcha doin' here, friend?"

A spit take was inevitable at the unfamiliar voice right beside him. It sounded like a typical radio show host ripped right off a recorder. Static, scratches, and everything. His head snapped down to stare at no other than Bendy, who wore a mildly interested expression despite the ever-present grin. His tail swished behind him, the only sign of nervousness shown.

Henry just gawked for a moment before moving his chair slightly to the right, away from the creature. Despite the fact that his gut reaction told him to freak out, his usual laid back demeanor shone through to tell him that this was _obviously_ an every day occurance. Obviously.

"I'm..I'm working..." He finally managed to sputter out. Bendy seemed patient.

"Wouldja let me take a look?" He tilted his head curiously up at the slanted table.

Something about him still made Henry uncomfortable...but at least talking to him seemed to make things more managable. He nodded uncertainly at the devil's request, and was startled when Bendy jumped up into the little space on his chair he wasn't using. He scootched over more, almost falling off in an effort to not touch the thing.

Bendy took a critical eye over Henry's work, eyes scrunching a bit in a scrutinizing manner. He hummed a bit before leaning foreward in the board with his elbow. He threw a look back at the man

"Ya gotta move the knee up a bit higher." He gestured down at the drawing.

Yet again, Henry was baffled. The cartoon critiquing the cartoonist. He would have laughed if this wasn't all so stunning.

"What do you mean?" He picked up his pencil uncertainly, looking down. He didn't see the problem.

"You gotta-." Bendy tilted his head, tail snapping dangerously to one side as he thought, before a frusterated look arose. He suddenly snatched the pencil right out of the man's hand, butting him back a bit with his elbow,"Screw it. Move over a bit, I'll show you."

Henry pushed back into his chair a little more, frowning as the cartoon bagan to make changes to the drawing. This was getting bizarre. What did Bendy know about drawing anyways?

Apparently a lot. Henry's jaw went a little slack at the vastly improved drawing. The action was there, the lines were straight, the thing the picture had been missing was fixed! Boris now jumped with purpose, almost coming alive on the paper. He stared for another minute, impressed, but still weirded out.

"Boy, I'd like to meet him someday." Bendy's voice went soft as he carefully put the pencil down, and rubbed his hands off.

"...huh?" Henry's brain wasn't really working well right now.

"Boris." The cartoon elaborated, shifting sidewise,"I'll bet he's nice."

"Oh. Yeah, he..he's nice, yeah. I guess." Henry frowned, getting up off the chair casually as Bendy slowly took over more of it. He grabbed his coat off the back of it as well and frowned a bit at the ink on it...and now that he looked, it was on his pants too.

In fact, Bendy seemed to be dripping a bit. Unnerving to say the least. A reminder that this thing wasn't technically real. But still...he wasn't flesh and blood, but he was obviously living. He frowned decisively; He would try to be mindful of how he treated the little devil.

"Think I'll ever meet him in person?" The smile was off his face for once, but he didn't look sad or anything. Just...genuinly curious.

"Yeah." Henry nodded quickly, responses coming to him faster,"Yeah, I'm sure you will." Could be true, or it could not be. Who _knew_ what his crazy loon of a boss/friend would do next with the ink machine.

Bendy smiled widely again, a mischievious glint sparkling in his eyes,"That's what I thought!" He let out a low whistle and stuck out one gloved hand,"By the way, my name's Bendy."

"Henry." He let out a small chuckle, shaking the small hand. It felt so strange, a liquid and solid at the same time,"Nice to meet you."

"Pleasures all mine, pal." The cartoon pulled one side of his bowtie tighter, waving the other out of the shake,"See ya tomorrow?"

From what Henry could gather out of this strange little encounter with the brash creature...He was lonely or something. It was kind of obvious, and thanks to his soft heart he felt bad for him.

"Yep." He managed a small smile, still keeping an eye on Bendy even as he slowly inched his way to the hallway. He paused,"I come in at nine every morning pretty much."

Bendy beamed, leaning on the table, and side-eyeing a few more drawings like he'd like to edit them, too,"Great! See ya then. Oh, and if you could bring me a sandwich or somethin' - I'd appreciate it. I wanna try one."

Henry stared incredulously for a second before he laughed at the absurdity of it all,"Alright, will do. Goodnight."

 **Author's note: the designs of Henry and Joey, along with the general idea for this oneshot were inspired from some amazing doodles by the talented doodledrawsthings on Tumblr! Seriously, I took some of my lines straight from her, sorry. Go give her and her magnificent work some love. And have a great night.**

 **EDIT: Screw it, I'm going to add another chapter or two.**


	2. Brought to you by Sillyvision

Stolen office equipment, missing employees, and dealing with a surprisingly mischievious cartoon character aside, production in Sillyvision studio was still going steady.

It was still eirie to Henry how Bendy could sometimes act so much like his paper and ink counterpart. Even to an immediate fault. He was a devious little trickster, and moody as all get out. You didn't want to get on his bad side, either. Despite his size, he would attempt to walk all over anyone who put him in a bad mindset...and you might not even know you'd done it. Like the one day Henry's alarm had gone off late and he'd been late twenty minutes getting to work. He had forgotten Bendy's (now mandatory) PBJ sandwich. The mark where the tack has embedded itself in his butt while he sat down for his day was enough to make him never forget that sandwich again, even if it made him extra late.

Bendy was generally unpredictable, and usually bored. A bad combo, but Henry was usually able to keep him busy with helping correct frames and poses. The cartoon was very good with a pencil, and seemed to enjoy showing up other artists with his own talent. He especially liked working on pictures of Boris, and was still fascinated with meeting him someday.

"A lil' heavy on the peanut butter today, Henry." Bendy nitpicked quietly one morning as Henry put his things down. At least he had some manners and didn't smack his lips while he ate.

"Sorry, Bendy," Henry shrugged off his coat, giving a wary eye at the ink machine chugging away on the other side of the room,"I was trying to compensate for the lack of jelly. I need to get some more at the store tonight."

"Mmm, hmm." Bendy distastefully dropped the sandwich and skipped over to where Henry now sat, tail swishing faintly. He began cleaning his teeth with a finger, waving the other hand almost mockingly,"What exciting and brilliant adventures will Henry the Human go on next? Henry and the hunt for jelly! Henry and the editing of two hundred pages! Henry gets yelled at by his boss!"

Henry shot him a look, but knew better than to intervene.

"I like my adventures better." He mused, narrowing one eye up at the animation table,"What with the singing, dancing, playing, and whatnot." He traced a boot absently over a cel that had fallen onto the ground,"Almost makes me wish I was actually _in_ these...features."

Henry knew that Bendy was bored. He still had no idea why Joey had even made the little devil. He served no purpose, really, and Joey usually did everything with a specific purpose in mind. Besides occasionally posing for a poster or a particularly difficult cel, Bendy basically did nothing but share his opinions, pull pranks, and smile a whole lot.

Henry decided to start work after a moment of chewing on his pencil. There was a lot to do today, even besides entertaining his new pointy headed friend and his ramblings. He nodded his head with an agreeable hum as he began to review each paper.

A few minutes passed and he was hard at work, jaw set in concentration. A few hours later and he was on a lunch break with the animators, watching the finished bits of 'The Wolf Who Cried' on a projector screen. The others were generally talkative and loud, but Henry was satisfied with his own internal thoughts. Plus Erin Waddle was obviously sick with something, and was not worried with hiding it. Henry was by no means germaphobic, but being in close proximity with someone who was ill still made him cringe. Who knew, maybe it spread through the air? In which case everyone joking around near him was infected. No, he enjoyed sitting right where he was.

"Hey, Henry!" Henry jerked his head up at the sound of his name, and couldn't help but frown at the man he'd been complaining about in his head.

"Why are your shirts always spotted?" Erin grinned widely at him, his thin, young face almost obnoxiously bright. The sandy bowl haircut did him no favors, either.

Henry took a quick glance down at his collared shirt. Indeed, like many of his work shirts nowadays, the white of his shirt was broken up by blotches of ink. Courtesy of Bendy and the occasional spattering, dripping thing he did. Given, though, that most of these people did not know about the living cartoon, Henry came up with a lame excuse.

"Yeah, mm, I'm just pretty clumsy these days." He gave a small smile Erin's way, which instantly dropped when the kid spewed germs his direction in the form of a cough-laugh. Nice. Agitatedly, he scratched the side of his head. That hadn't even been funny; it must have been a pity laugh that escalated to a hacking fit.

Needless to say, he tried to get back to editing as soon as humanly possible. He didn't even eat his cookie, and instead offered it to Bendy.

"What is it, Henry?" Bendy observed the flat disk of sweet cooked dough and chocolate chips given to him. He looked amused, smile stuck on his face.

Henry sorted some paper absently,"Its a cookie; you eat it. Don't worry, it's sweet."

Bendy much prefered sweet to savory and let it be heard loudly whenever he was given a ham and cheese sandwich. One might expect him to be grateful, but no. He'd eat it, alright, but he'd be proclaiming about the fabulous wonders of PB and J while he was doing it. Also once he'd put the cheese he'd found on a sandwich down the back of Henry's shirt; that had not been pleasant in the least.

He frowned lightly at a few blotches of ink on one of the cels Bendy had fixed, but didn't think too much of it. He couldn't exactly scold the little demon for something he couldn't help.

Actually, he kind of expected to hear the cartoon enjoying his cookie. But he heard nothing, not even the usually click of feet coming over to keep him company. So he turned slightly in the chair, arm thrown over the back of it while he pursed his lips. Bendy was just kind of...sitting there. Staring at the cookie in his hand in a detached way. Melting a bit...and staying so unnaturally still that it made Henry hold his breath for a moment. It was like the inky creature was frozen in time for a moment.

Henry found himself almost scared, before he slid his chair a bit to face him. No movement.

"Bendy?" Still nothing. He moved foreward in the chair a bit, blinking in concern as more ink pooled on the floor,"Hey. Hey! Bendy!"

A snap of the fingers finally got Bendy to respond, his form becoming suddenly rigid, teeth grit, before he reformed himself a bit more and relaxed. He gave Henry one of his most genuine smiles, shoulders shrugging upwards. Death grip on the cookie.

"Whatcha need, Henry?" He hummed out, feet swinging backwards and forewards like nothing had happened.

"You...froze." Henry squinted, trying to explain it,"You kinda just..stopped..for a minute."

Bendy's smile became a bit wider.

The man paused,"...you ok?" It felt kind of weird asking that for some reason.

"Never better, never better!" The dancing devil smoothed over the issue with a wave of his gloved hand, grin never faltering as he dropped the cookie on the desk beside him. He slid back into his announcer's tone,"Ladies and gentlemen! Apologies for the interruption, your regularity scheduled programming will continue in a moment!"

He cackled out a laugh after that, straightening out his bowtie with a flourish. Henry still found this unsettling, especially since Bendy had apparently not noticed he'd done it and then had tried to laugh it off. He sucked in a breath, running his hand across his desk as he thought. There was really nothing he could do about it.

"Henry?" Bendy tilted his head,"Are you coming to work tomorrow?"

"Yes, definitely" Henry nodded quickly, brow furrowing,"Orchestra's first run through the soundtrack; I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Oh, good." Bendy laughed, seeming to perk up. Sometimes Henry worried that the creature was far too dependant on his presence.

Still, he caught the inky creature zoning out once more that day before he left for the night. It was dismissed as nothing unusual.

The next morning was even more unusual. For once in almost three years, Henry had to take a sick day off work. He blamed Erin Waddle. Accompanied by sneezing, coughing, and a raging headache, was a short lived stomach virus that rejected his breakfast entirely.

He felt bad, too, because he really had wanted to be there to help manage the soundtrack recording. At least Joey was there to keep everyone straight...and keep Bendy company. Hopefully.

Fortunately the illness was extremely short lived. By the next day Henry had nothing more than the sniffles, and an occasional cough he could control. He was safe to come into work Tuesday, and so he did; lunchpail and coat in hand.

The studio was quiet today. Henry only saw about two other workers on his track to the back of the building where his desk was. He wondered if anyone else had been fired...or had gone missing. It wouldn't surprise him at this point, honestly. Or maybe everyone was on vacation, or taking sick days. Yeah, that was it.

At any rate, he walked quietly back to his animation table and was surprised to see most of the frames he'd left there were gone. The scene he had been working so hard on had vanished. He paused for a second, scratching at his chin. Maybe someone had taken them to work on while he had been out yesterday...

A drop of ink landing right on his forehead ceased his thoughts for a moment. He looked up, blinking rapidly. It seemed that there was a burst pipe or something because there was black all through the wood above him, with ink occasionally dropping down from it. Strange. He'd have to find Joey and tell him about that so there was no lasting damage.

He turned to the hallway and nearly jumped out of his skin, lunchpail hitting the wooden floor with a thunderous noise in the silent studio. His heart hammered in his chest, sweat almost instantly collecting on his face. Bendy was not a particularily threatening entity unless you didn't know he was there. _And there he was._

Gloved hands set firmly on his hips, tail swishing close to the floor, and an affronted look pointedly aimed at the man. Thick drips of black were starting to dribble over his eyes as he melted a bit. Henry instantly felt that something was very wrong, and was honestly horrified in a flash.

" _Yes_ _, definitely."_ The inky devil hissed, voice fuzzing like static," _Orchestra's first run through the soundtrack; wouldn't miss it for the world."_

Yes, those were the words Henry had spoken a couple days ago. But so what?

A beat passed in tense silence.

Bendy trembled for a moment before chuckling a bit, reaching up to wipe some ink out of his cheery eyes. He flashed Henry a particular look. A look that said that if something was spoken in the next few minutes that he didn't want to hear, there would be consequences.

"Ya could've just said you weren't going to come in yesterday, Henry." Another warning in the falsely happy tone extremely unsettled the editor.

"I was sick." He frowned tightly, suddenly wondering if Bendy knew what that meant. He spoke slowly," Ill. I wasn't fit for work. Couldn't come in."

"Mmmm...really? Why would you **_lie_** to me, then?"

Lie? Being sick was unavoidable. He'd even called in and told Joey he wasn't well enough to work, assuming that Bendy would hear about it eventually. Bendy was around Joey a lot too, right?

"Bendy, I didn't lie-!" His voice was cut off with a rather embarrassing squeak as Bendy flared to life. Eyes widening in fury, ink spiking and spilling, posture seeming to straighten and grow a bit.

" **DON'T SAY THAT. YOU _LIED."_** He stretched out the last word, putting special emphasis on it.

Henry knew something was definitely wrong now, because no sane human being...or a so far sane human like thing...would act like this. He was being unreasonable, unrational, and was definitely not thinking straight. Mentally unwell. A fear of unpredictability bubbled up in the man, squashing down the thoughts of this creature being his friend. He was now trying to appease a feral animal; he had no idea what it had a mind to do. Could Bendy even do anything to him if he was upsetted? How the heck was he supposed to know?

One thing was for sure, though; Bendy was getting more frightening by the second. By now ink was everwhere where he was standing, spattered on the walls and dripping down between the floorboards. It was unbelievably bizarre how inraged such a small issue made him.

Henry held up both hands in front of his chest, hoping to appear apologetic despite the wary expression he wore,"Ok, yes, I'm sorry...I may have lied, but I didn't _mean_ to. Alright?"

" **Liars. Cheats. All of you, all of you."** He snarled back a bit unintelligably, becoming more distorted, before breaking into a warbling shriek," **YOU'rE nO dIffErEnt, HEnrY!"**

Henry took several hurried steps back, partially tripping over his chair. A sharp pain hit his knee as it glanced off the table, but for the moment he paid it no mind. His scrambled thoughts were caught in a muddled flurry between being confused, angry, hurt, and scared.

He stopped when he heard a splash under his feet. Looking down, he saw how his nice polished black shoes were now shiny wet from the ink puddle he'd stepped back into. In fact, all the corners of the room were starting to spurt ink up into the room. Had a pipe burst, or was Bendy doing this? Either way, it was all doing a great job of adding to the hair-raising atmosphere.

All of this happened too fast, and Henry suddenly found himself tripping over his own two feet. He hit the ground on his back with splash, ruining his shirt indefinitely. Wasting no time in flailing onto his elbows and inching backwards, he found himself taking a sharp intake of breath. Bendy had somehow moved right up to him in a few seconds, looking anything but friendly.

" ** _liarliarliarliarliARLIAR_!LIAR!" ** He was stuck shouting that word, ink bubbling down over his eyes and mouth. In fact, the ink seemed to be aiding his into becoming a slightly larger, longer creature; beginning to leer over the man wickedly. Henry felt the ink crawling up into his shoulders, the cool of it touching the skin of his neck.He couldn't move his hands, couldn't feel his legs, he was stuck staring on in horror.

" ** _LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR LI-"_**

"That's enough!" A shout made everything in the room freeze. Henry could barely tear his eyes away to look at the doorway. There stood Joey, not looking particularily disturbed or surprised. More angry, like the two of them were having a mere spat that he could easily correct as a parent could. His greying hair was a bit discheveled, but otherwise he looked fairly unchanged.

"Stop." He commanded with a voice of authority, barely raising an eyebrow.

All at once everything went back to normal. The ink seeped back through the walls, and Bendy went back to looking his usual small self. His face was stiff and humourless, eyes looking sideways at Joey without actually turning his head. His expression was not unlike a child getting caught stealing a cookie.

For the second time that year Henry found himself finally finding his voice and yelling at his friend,"Joey, what the _hell!?"_

Joey stared at him, frowning. He seemed tired. He redirected his attention to the little devil standing sullenly near the other man.

"Bendy, go wait for me in my office." The cartoon obliged, not even giving Henry a second glance. His tail dragged along behind him.

Joey gave Henry what could only be an apologetic look, however, anyone else but his best friend would have missed it. He turned to leave before Henry banged his fist on the ground to get his attention.

"You don't even know what he _is,_ do you?!" He had to struggle to keep his voice level,"You _made_ him, and you don't even know what he is!"

Joey just stared for a moment before walking out. Henry couldn't even fathom what would be done now, except to try to reason with this madness.

"You don't even know what he _could do!"_

 **Author's note: I was going to go on a while longer, but this seemed like a great place to stop. Expect more freakouts and Boris in the next chapter, among other things. I'm by no means a writer, and I'm kinda just coming up with this as I go haha. Please review and let me know if you enjoy it so I can continue! And thank you for the reviews and favorites I've recieved so far!**


	3. Now Presenting

**_Months passed..._**

...and then there were two.

In fact, Henry was surprisingly pretty freaking glad that Joey had made another abomination out of ink to play with Bendy, because personally, he couldn't look at the little devil the same way anymore. Let alone feel safe around him when he wanted company.

There was just something so wrong about all of this that plagued his mind. Bendy was like a child, newly made and curious...but he wasn't so innocent. He had a serious mean streak along with no tolerance for any sort of lie whatsoever. It was weird, and Henry still had no idea why it struck such a negative chord with the cartoon. Actually, it was beyond weird, it could be downright scary at times.

He could only wonder what the new creation, Boris, would bring to the studio.

Boris was a wolf, which was only slightly less intimidating than a literal demon. He stood far taller than Bendy, a good foot over Henry's own height. He had a white face and overalls, with two tall black ears waving to and fro atop his head. Yet again, a perfect three dimensional version of his cartoon character duplicate moving on the screen.

Unfortunately, Henry still had to be near the two often enough. Joey was really busy with...things, and Henry was starting to get the feeling that he was being used as an unpaid babysitter for the man's creations. All he really wanted to do was sit at his desk and work, but it was hard with less and less people coming in to help these days. He wasn't even entirely sure if they were quitting or being fired. But then again, why in the world would Joey fire anyone? Let alone fire so many in under a year. This studio was his metaphorical baby. It had taken him years to get it up and walking; he wouldn't let it fall...right?

"Hey, Boris! Ol' buddy, ol' pal!" Henry heard the two characters shuffling around somewhere behind him. He kept his eyes to his work.

"Why are ya cryin'?" For his part, Bendy was doing a great job of sounding generally concerned.

"Oh, it t'ain't nothin', Bendy." Boris' voice was just slightly deeper, with a tiny bit of a whine in his tone. It was still buffered with scratches and blips like Bendy's though," It t'ain't nothin' at all."

Clearly putting on a bit of an accent, there.

"Well then, what's with all tha salt water leaking down your cheeks?"

They paused as if waiting for a laugh track.

"Those are tears...of joy." A sad, over exaggerated sniff from Boris.

"Malarky!" Exclaimed the devil,"What you need is some cheerings ups!" He cleared his throat dramatically,"OOOOHHHH~"

A slight banging noise had Henry spin around in his chair to make sure no one was hurt. Instead, he saw that Boris had playfully pounced on Bendy and was pinning him to the floor by the top of his head. They were snipping at one another, but it seemed in all good fun. Henry couldn't help the small smile that crept onto his face, but attempted to banish it a second later in favor of a more professional look.

"If you start singin', I'll make you eat your own bowtie!"

"BORIS! This isn't a part of the script!"

They broke down into a fit of unmanagable laughter, Boris sliding off of Bendy. Indeed, they had been attempting to copy the lines from the almost finished episode, 'The Wolf Who Cried'. They were also trying to imitate their own voice actors, which was admittedly pretty funny.

Bendy really did seem less fitful and angry around his new friend. Almost like a totally different person...er...devil ink thing. Friendlier, with less wise-cracking and snapping. He'd even seemed to solidify more; there were fewer drops of ink falling from him. He just seemed...happier.

The two of them swatted playfully at one another for another moment, Boris overpowering Bendy at even that. Heck, the little devil's face fit in one of Boris' hands for Pete's sake. But for his credit, the toon was very gentle with everyone he came into contact with.

Henry accidentally made eye contact with the wolf, who smiled widely, showing off his fanged maw, and wagged his bushy tail slowly.

"Sorry there, Henry; we botherin' you?" He gave an apologetic grin. He seemed to like apologizing, as Henry had heard it a lot lately for lesser matters.

"No, no," He waved a hand, shrugging his broad shoulders,"No, I'm just watching. Carry on."

"Aw, c'mon, have some fun for once!' Bendy coaxed from the floor, smile lopsided against the wood,"You should really lighten up." He really did a great job at pretending that nothing had happened.

"Yeah, well, I'm doing my job. That's what I'm here for; to work, not play." He paused at their expressions,"But you guys continue, it's nice that you're enjoying yourselves."

Bendy pushed himself up by his elbows,"You mean you're not here because you want to be?"

Henry chewed his lip, rolling his pencil in his hand absently,"Well...initially, yes. But it's just something to put food on the table now." He observed the curiosity in their black eyes and decided to elaborate,"This studio was an amazing place to work at years ago...but now it's just kinda going...downhill. It's hard for me to say this, but I'm not sure how much longer we can last. Especially with all the darn staff gradually quitting for absolutely no discernable reason. First Pete, because he couldn't 'stand the smell of the place' or some bull like that, then Agatha and Thomas just left without resigning or giving a notice, and Bill..."

He realized he was ranting a bit, pencil bending in his hand as his words became more heated. He checked himself and calmed down with a breath, eyeing up from his lap to the two cartoons across the room. Boris still held his usual lazy, kind smile. Bendy, however...he was still smiling but it looked very wrong. All playfulness was gone, he looked extremely tense even from his awkward position on the floor.

He had a feeling that he really shouldn't speak to them of these matters. But then Bendy started a rather hearty chuckle, bouncing up off the ground like a compressed spring.

"Well, whatever, Henry! Humans sure are silly, eh, Boris?"He nudged the wolf in the ribs,"What matters is that _we_ want to be here!"

Boris nodded happily, agreeing to most everything his best friend had to say,"Yup."

"Alright, we'll leave ya be," Bendy walked closer to Henry, coughing distinctly into his hand, the other held out a bit.

Henry checked his watch. Quarter past eleven. He rolled his eyes a bit, reaching under the animation desk for his lunch box. He pulled out a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and handed them over. The devil gave him a wide grin, snatching the treats rather ungratefully before high-tailing it out of the room.

"I'm going ta eat them both!" He yelled warningly, and Boris chased him a second later; but not before giving the man a genuine thank you. Henry swore, that wolf was too nice for his own good. He was going to get himself hurt someday.

Meanwhile, the whole studio was in a frenzy of stress over some key frames that were off...curteousy of Joey Drew. He claimed they had a limited time to get the next episode out, and then proceeded to try and tell the workers how to do their jobs his way. The man was a ticking time bomb; able to work everyone up around him when he himself was upset, and then becoming angry when people snapped back at him. Henry, fortunately, was mostly unaffected. He was too passive and calm to get mad at his boss. As long as his life was not hanging in the balance, and his pay check was still coming through, he wasn't going to have an anuerism over redrawing a few scenes and working overtime.

Barry from recording seemed to have other ideas, and quit promptly. However, to Joey's reluctant delight, not before the track itself had been edited together.

Joey was also sort of leaving the more difficult scenes to animate to a certain toon. For all his flaws, Bendy was still an exemplary artist and animator. Not only could he get any scene done in record time, but they were usually flawless. In fact, Henry was pretty sure that he was secretly supervising and editing many of the pieces he and others were working on. It didn't matter too much, however, as no one could complain about something so perfect looking. The new quality would certainly fool competition into believing that SillyVision was becoming well off.

...When in fact, in Henry's humble yet correct opinion, it was heading in the opposite direction. So badly that he was looking into other animation work in case he had to jump ship. Being partially in charge of finances, he couldn't help but cringe at the ever falling numbers.

It made him wonder what exactly Joey had planned for Bendy and Boris when the studio eventually turned belly up. Boris at least seemed innocent to it all, enjoying all the time with his partner. Bendy still worried Henry though, because he always seemed to know so much more than he let on.

He'd actually caught the dancing devil _crying_ once. Or at least his supposed equivalence.

On the first of the month, he'd made the mistake of coming in early for work. After all, he had no family to entertain, and all his friends worked at SillyVision. The studio was pretty much his life. He had figured he could get some extra done and relieve some stress from Joey's shoulders. The poor guy had more grey hairs everyday.

The studio had been really, eerily quiet and dark. Kinda creeped him out a bit honestly, but he wasn't the type to outwardly show it, so he had just tucked his bag more securely under his arm and quickened his pace to the back of the building where his desk waited for him.

Just as he had reached the corridor and was about to enter the room, a small noise caught his attention. He hadn't been sure why, but he had froze completely as soon as it started. An almost pitiful crying whine, like someone was so miserable that they couldn't have held it in if they had tried. And it had come from his office.

He had leaned foreward on the toes of his feet, peering just slightly around the frame of the door as another pathetic sound went up. Almost unsurprisingly, it was the little black devil, Bendy, himself. Who else could it have been, really?

He had been on his knees on Henry's chair, leaning on the animation table like it was the only thing keeping him upright. Ink dribbled slowly off of his slightly trembling frame, oozing off onto the floor or the table itself. His face had been turned away from Henry, so the expression on his face was not seen...but it was easy to imagine.

Henry had stayed frozen, many thoughts racing through his head. _Why is he back here? Where's Boris? He's dripping a lot...what if he attacks me again?..._

Most strangely had been that despite the misery enveloping the toon, he was still gripping a pencil and dragging it over some papers Henry had laid out the day before. Working, correcting the poses, perhaps just trying to keep his mind off of...things.

His body had shivered as another sob pushed its way out. It sounded like he was doing everything he could to keep it in. Honestly, as bad as Henry had felt in the moment, he had wanted no part of it. He had been afraid that something bad would happen to himself, even if he had wondered what had reduced the cheerful cartoon to this.

He had chewed his lip, slipping silently backwards out of the frame. The part of him that was an Uncle to two great neices wanted to go and comfort the little tortured creature. The part of him that was a business man wanted to keep his work and emotions seperate.

Whether it was right or wrong, Henry had backtracked out of the studio and then hung around town until the time came for him to get to work. Bendy had gone back to being his usually chipper, mischieve-making self by then.

Henry never mentioned what he'd seen, and no one ever asked.

Of course, the two toons could not remain a secret forever. They just couldn't stay in two rooms their entire lives. It was inevitable that a confrontation would take place eventually. But even as he sat in the conference room with the rest of the staff, present day, Henry could reflect on about ten better ways said secret could have gotten out.

Joey had literally, in the cheesiest fashion he could manage, pulled a curtain away from his creations in the middle of a meeting. Then he stood smiling like he thought they'd be equally pleased, or at least as accepting as his fool friend Henry.

Instead, as Henry sat riggedly in his hard wood seat, suddenly aware of every sound and motion in the vicinity, he noticed the amount of jaws dropping open. This could be considered comical if it weren't so dang weird.

A stale silence enveloped the little room; a pin could drop and no one would care. Bendy and Boris, for their part, were doing pretty well at appearing friendly. Bendy's tense, twitchy body language, however, suggested that he'd rather be anywhere else.

Then the silence was shattered. A women fainted right out of her chair with a strangled noise, a man started shouting at Joey, and the rest were at least up, knocking into one another, and as far away as they could manage from the abominations. Henry looked really out of place for a moment, sitting in the middle of chaos with his legs crossed and hands gently resting in his lap. He struggled desperately to keep his expression nuetral.

The yelling in the room slowly rose up, men panicked to know what all this _was,_ and if they were _dangerous_ and how the _heck_ had this happened _and-_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, _Whoa._ People!" Out from the croud pushed a rather... _slimy_ looking man that Henry had not officially made acquaintances with yet. He looked like a kind of humanized copperhead, eyes intent and sharp, hair silver and brushed back. Henry was pretty sure he worked in the sound department downstairs, not really a popular man, but he took his work very seriously. He also had gained a reputation for wearing a black sweatshirt no matter the weather. Kinda gross, but it was no business of his.

The man strode across the room in four steps, bent foreward and incredibly eager looking. Too eager. He walked boldly right up to the inky monsters, a grin stretching up one side of his face. In fact, the other half of his face showed no expression at all. The room became quiet, besides a few people trying to get the fainted woman back in her chair. She took another look to the front and promptly plopped to the floor again.

"Joey! You scoundrel, when did ya do this?!" The man looked over the two with rapt attention, glancing sideways at their creator.

"Ah!" Joey seemed to re-gather his energy, dropping a hand on Boris' shoulder. It was hard to miss the wince from Bendy, "A few months ago now, Sammy! They've been picking up the slack and getting the studio back on its feet."

Henry wanted to disagree, but instead continued to lightly chew the pencil he usually kept behind his ear. He shifted in his chair, frowning. It looked like this Sammy was another weirdo like himself that didnt care terribly about Joey creating life from ink. Great.

"This is just incredible, Joey." Sammy near whispered, crouching down to look Bendy in the eyes. An uncomfortable silence stretched through the room again, as if most were waiting for the little devil to attack.

"Just incredible." He breathed again, almost seeming mesmerized, and not once breaking eye contact. Bendy stared back, blank in expression, tail ridged. Something unsaid passed between the two.

Then Sammy stood to his full six foot height and spun to face his disgusted or cowering co-workers.

"Ladies! Gentlemen! This isn't dangerous, this is amazing! A real step foreward for our studio and for the progress of mankind!" His half sided smile was easy and encouraging and _sleazy._

"You're nuts! Both of you!" Someone yelled from the back.

Henry had to agree inwardly. Thats why he didn't rise himself to move to the front of the room as well. He was too busy trying to appear normal.

Matters were certainly not improved when a small ink pipe suddenly burst in the back of the room, showering those who had retreated to cower. A new rush of noise rose up, as the workers now made a mad dash back to the front, perhaps believing that more inky monstrosities were raining down upon them. Most exited the room altogether, yelling at Joey as they passed like he'd done it in purpose.

Now Henry _really_ wanted to laugh, but Sammy beat him to it with a great, hearty sound.

Maybe they were all mad.

 **Wowie, look! Another chapter. I honestly wasn't going to bother, but all of a sudden I got a bunch of really lovely reviews!! Thank you sincerely, guys! You really encouraged me to write this third chapter. Hopefully, I'll get the fourth flowing soon. Have a great day!**


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